Plan B Forum

...when I have conclusively proven that I am, you could at least refrain from talking down to me and making out as if you are doing me a favour by letting me grace your store.

I was in a chain grocery store in my neighbourhood, at which I shop frequently. As I walk in I notice they have pickles on sale for less than half price, so I pick up a jar. I note that not every type of pickle of that brand in on sale, so I check to see that the ones I want (garlic dills, with 50% less salt) are in fact one of the sale items (they are). I continue with my shopping and head to the checkout, where the pickles scan for the regular price. I tell the clerk they are on sale; he asks for a price check, another staff member does so and comes back to say that the ones I chose are not on sale. I tell her exactly where to look for the correct tag (rightmost corner of bottom shelf) and she tells me that my pickles came from another shelf (which they did, but because they were misshelved; the tag for that product clearly indicated they were on sale). I saw that I was getting nowhere, completed my transaction (minus the pickles) and then brought her right to the shelf, showed her the tag and compared it to the product I wanted. She still kept insisting that I was wrong because the product came from a different shelf. I gave up and left.

I would not have been pissed off enough about this to write about it, but for the fact that the exact same thing happened with exactly the same product on two previous occasions. On those times I stayed in the checkout line and insisted until I got the sale price, but only with the clerk accompanying their keying with an exasperated look as if they were they were humouring me and gave in just because they didn't want to be bothered. I went to their customer feedback website and wrote a huge diatribe about my experience, checking the box that said they could contact me for further info, because I am not done wanting to chew someone out about this.

I have been used to getting that kind of attitude from sales clerks in some parts of Europe, but it is becoming more and more frequent here and it ticks me off. One would think, in this economy, they would more conscious about not turning away business, but...

You could take your business to another store.

With that being said, you are dealing with corporate drones (who probably hate their job) and want to project their bitter feelings on to you. Don't let them do this. They're stuck working at a crappy job and you're not.

REJOICE!

Three times at a chain store ...and they still didn't update the price on the barcode?
Where it was on the shelf shouldn't matter at all, if you can match the barcode numbers. They were making piss poor excuses, and I'd ask to talk to the manager, it's his job to babysit the whiny teenagers.

It was actually three different sales, so they made the same mistake three times, rather than just delaying to fix only one mistake. I didn't ask to talk to a manager because I wanted to get home and start cookiing dinner, but I am going to go back in the next day or so because I have only one pickle left in the jar in my fridge, and I am going to speak to a manager if I get the same attitude again. It pissed me off all the more because I did everything I could to make their job easier (for example, I didn't hold up the checkout line waiting for a price check; at my suggestion, I got the cashier to ring up the rest of my items and I paid for them so that he could go on to the next customer while I waited for the price check, then I went to the shelf myself and pointed out the sale tag and compared it side by side with the item I was trying to buy). And I still got attitude. I left feeling that if I had been belligerant and obstructive I would have gotten better service.

You have every right to be frustrated. When there is any question, they should defer to honoring the sale price - even if an item is mis-shelved. I've been hosed here and there on sale items at grocery and big box stores, and I recall seeing exposes on news programs about this phenomena. I don't know if it's intentional or a result of too many promotions to keep track of, but for those of us who actually pay attention to the prices as we are shopping, it's maddening. Still, try not to let it raise your blood pressure.

Hey Scooter, are you familiar with the Scanning Code of Practice? Check this out. You should be able to get your pickles free! Enjoy!

I have been used to getting that kind of attitude from sales clerks in some parts of Europe, but it is becoming more and more frequent here and it ticks me off. One would think, in this economy, they would more conscious about not turning away business, but...

One benefit to the bad economy I believe is better customer service. I think it has generally improved in the last 5 years or so when the unemplyment rate was 4.5%. But there are still some people who think they are doing you a favor to buy something from them. You have every right to get pissed and complain, something I myself don't like to do. But my wife would have asked to talk with the store manager and taken them to the shelf and show them the mistake. She's gotten more than one employee in big trouble before, even fired when they've had previous issues.

Having worked in Retail for a while, I can say that there are customers who will move non-sale merchandise to a sale rack and demand that they get it for the sale price. There is also the matter of goods that appear identical, but come from different lots, which were received by the store at different times. They will mark down the older lot and keep the retail price on the new one. Customers complain, of course, because they can't see the difference.

This is one reason why clerks have little patience with customers who claim they are entitled to a "sale" price when it doesn't appear that they are.

What exactly did you check to confirm that the pickles you selected were among those on sale? Was there a sign? If so, you have a right to some satisfaction.

As a general proposition, you can always go to the store manager and get satisfaction, even when her underlings have denied you all along. If you bring your receipt and talk to the Boss, I would be surprised if you don't get a partial refund.

The old Sears store policy was that no one could deny an insistent customer a refund except the Store Manager - and the store manager never would.

dgs49 wrote:What exactly did you check to confirm that the pickles you selected were among those on sale? Was there a sign?

Yes. Each individual variety of pickles of this brand had a label affixed to the shelf identifying it and its price. Some varieties had a sale price on them and some did not. The variety I had chosen had a sale price on the shelf label (although it was stocked on a different shelf from where the label was placed).

I did stop by the store again earlier today, determined to repeat the experiment now that I had the time to kill, but lo and behold, the varieties that had shelf labels with the sale price had been changed. There was actually now more logic to the distinction between the varieties that were on sale and those which were not. So it appears that the error had been with who had made up the shelf labels rather than with who had programmed the scanners. I have no problem with that now that I saw it, I just don't see why I was being treated like an idiot when staff clearly had no idea that that was the explanation.

If it was their screw up, they should have still honored it. My wife would be on them for a bait and switch.

Oh I agree, they should have, and on a previous occasion I insisted that they do. I just couldn't be bothered last night to stick around long enough to force the issue. I think I got better revenge by writing such a diatribe about it on the company's online feedback site. I already got an email saying someone would be "contacting you to further discuss your less than completely satisfactory experience at one of our stores".

I'm thinking someone will eventually be getting a stern lecture from someone who actually counts in their universe.

I have noted how even as the speed of checkout lines has increased, people in line have less patience with the reduced wait times (don't know if that trend impacts the clerks behavior). Prior to UPC scanners, it was luck or skill to pick out the checkers who could move their line along, and it was possible to be in a grocery line for 10 minutes or more. These days, it is rare to be in line more than a minute or two, and customers are jumping from foot to foot looking for a faster line. I have to remind myself to relax and scan the tabloid headlines when I get stuck in a 2 minute line.

If I see something that is causing inefficiency at the checkout I will wait my turn and then make a suggestion to the cashier as I am leaving. For example, "I don't expect you to get into an argument with a customer who has more than the number of items allowed in the express line, but once they have been served, you could give them a gentle reminder that they shouldn't have done so." Or, "rather than hold up the entire line waiting for a price check, you could have gotten that customer to pay for the rest of his/her purchases, have him/her wait while you went on to serve someone else, and then come back to him/her to pay for the remaining item when you know the price."

You're asking someone making minimum wage with no chance ever of moving up to a position with an equity stake to act like they own the company and are supposed to give a rats ass when their fucked-up process goes wrong.

Not a reasonable expectation.



yrs,
rubato

Scooter wrote:If I see something that is causing inefficiency at the checkout I will wait my turn and then make a suggestion to the cashier as I am leaving. For example, "I don't expect you to get into an argument with a customer who has more than the number of items allowed in the express line, but once they have been served, you could give them a gentle reminder that they shouldn't have done so." Or, "rather than hold up the entire line waiting for a price check, you could have gotten that customer to pay for the rest of his/her purchases, have him/her wait while you went on to serve someone else, and then come back to him/her to pay for the remaining item when you know the price."

It being a well-established principle of social science that unsolicited advice is universally welcomed, adopted, and the world is made better thereby.

You don't actually have to have insight into people to do your job do you? I really hope not.

yrs,
rubato

there goes another irony meter.

I do not do it in a way that sounds like I am complaining about the service that I received, but rather I am making a suggestion that will make their own job easier. And usually it is appreciated because their employers see them as you do, a bunch of drones who have no real interest in doing a good job, so no one has bothered to show them a better way.

It also helps to model the behaviour you are expecting to see in others, for example, by suggesting he/she go on to serving other customers while you are waiting for a price check, and waiting patiently while that happens.

Oh yeah, and smiling and a friendly tone don't hurt, either.

You're asking someone making minimum wage with no chance ever of moving up to a position with an equity stake to act like they own the company and are supposed to give a rats ass when their fucked-up process goes wrong.

Cashiers ingrocery stores actually make pretty good money, not even close to minimum wage (which is a wage for a new hire starting position like a bagger). They actually have a lot of responsibility.

Cashiers make "good money"?

http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes412011.htm

From the BLS site:

Percentile

10%

25%

50%
(Median)

75%

90%



Hourly Wage

$7.56

$8.06

$8.89

$10.16

$12.40



Annual Wage (2)

$15,720

$16,770

$18,500

$21,140

$25,780

These are crap wages.